Parkinson's disease drug therapies in the clinical trial pipeline: 2015-2024.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Cross-sectional registry analysis of ClinicalTrials.gov records (rated by design analogy)
PubMed 42187233 · doi:10.1177/1877718X261454154
What was done
Authors analyzed a dataset of Parkinson's disease (PD) drug clinical trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov between 2015 and 2024. Trials were classified by development phase (Phases 1–3), therapeutic focus (symptomatic therapy vs. disease-modifying therapy), drug novelty (novel compounds, repurposed drugs, or reformulations of existing therapies), and biological target/mechanism of action.
What was found
The review identified 444 trials evaluating 281 drug interventions across the 10-year window, with 133 trials remaining active at the end of 2024. By phase, 42% were Phase 1, 46% were Phase 2, and 12% were Phase 3. Regarding trial focus, 63% evaluated symptomatic therapies and 37% evaluated disease-modifying therapies. By novelty, 52% of trials examined novel treatments, 33% tested repurposed drugs, and the remainder assessed reformulations. Overall, 14 drugs received regulatory approval for symptomatic management of PD during this timeframe, whereas zero disease-modifying therapies gained approval.
Why it matters
This decadal pipeline analysis maps global clinical trial investment in PD therapeutics, demonstrating active early-phase development but highlighting a persistent translational gap in achieving disease-modifying treatments.
Limits
The analysis was restricted to ClinicalTrials.gov entries, potentially missing trials registered exclusively on other international registries or unregistered studies. The dataset relied on publicly reported trial descriptions without assessing methodological quality, primary outcome completion rates, or publication bias.
Cited by
- supports No medications currently used to treat Parkinson's disease have been demonstrated to slow disease progression.